Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

Outrage over alleged ring theft at MH17 crash site

Disturbing images have emerged online claiming to show a Ukrainian separatist fighter stealing a ring from a victim of the MH17 disaster.

The picture, which is yet to be independently verified, shows three rebels dressed in military uniforms reportedly rifling through victims' luggage.

In one frame first tweeted in Russian by user stabilizec, a blond fighter appears to be handling a gold ring, possibly belonging to one of the dead.

Thousands online were quick to condemn their "appalling" and "inhumane" actions, despite having no confirmation of the photo's veracity.

While others suggested the rebels may have simply been trying to identify one of the 298 passengers, whose bodies were scattered across the eastern Ukraine countryside where the plane came down.

The emergence of the photos came shortly after a video published by the BBC showed other pro-Russian fighters searching through bags and walking over wreckage while searching for the doomed aircraft's black boxes.

A militia leader known only as Zhuk, who is believed to have filmed the footage, said his men were merely following procedure.